The Homecoming Ends
by last bandit
Summary: After a fun night, David McCullen is called to a murder case with Sarah Niles, his friend. Can they catch the culprit? Or is there something lurking in the shadows of one man's thoughts? Rated T for violence Hey Dudes! Listen, this may not qualify as a fanfic, readers gotta read between the lines. It'll make sense if you do. BTW, Scotur Geriv is an anagram. Figure it out!


David McCullen  
Case #1: The Homecoming Ends  
David brushed his suit, and fixed his tie. Tonight is the Homecoming Dance, and he is ready for it. He chuckled slightly as he remembers how nervous he was when he asked her. His date was Sarah Niles, the prettiest girl in school, or at least in his class. He had seen her, walked up to her, took a sip from a nearby water fountain, stood up, took a gulp, walked up to her, and asked her. In front of everyone. Thank goodness she said yes; his embarrassment would echo off the walls as long as he was there.  
But, it didn't matter. David glances at his watch, and cursed silently. If he didn't hurry, he'd be late to pick her up. He looked in the mirror, ran his hand through his hair, then yelled, "Mom! We're gonna be late!" This night should go well, he thought. Just us, and everyone else.  
He was dead wrong.  
They made it in time. Sarah stood there, wearing a cocktail dress and high heels. He chauffeured her into the car, and shut the door, sitting next to her. There was a long silence, before David's mom asks, "So, how long have you known each other?"  
Both students replied at the same time. "A month."  
"Well, that's nice. Do you talk to each other a lot?"  
Sarah answered first. "We don't see each other that much." David nodded in acknowledgment.  
His mother persisted. "But you talk when you do see each other, right?"  
"I say hi to her," David said. His mother realized she was embarrassing them, so she quit trying to break the ice.  
They finally got to the school in silence. Some friends would meet with them, and they'd enjoy themselves. David escorted Sarah out of the car, waved good-bye to his mother, then walked into the building.  
"DAVID! Wassup, man?" Fred called out. His date, Josie Armatine, was beaming with happiness. David smiled briefly, then looked down, noticing the intricate way the leather was sown on the sole of his right loafer. Sarah asked him if she could check to see if her friends had arrived;he nodded, and she walked away. Fred shook his head,laughing. "Man, don't let your prize walk away like that. You gotta be the daddy of the group. Understand?"David nodded, and Fred said, "Great! Now, go dance with her, and I won't take 'no' for an answer."  
"I don't know how to dance..." David muttered as he meandered his way through the throng of students to find Sarah. He realized that was an answer. Fred didn't care.  
It turned out dancing was easy with Sarah. After she showed him where to place his hands. David felt his face could be seen from a mile away like a neon sign. It was fun with her. She had two siblings,both younger than her. They had a pet cat named Christie. She loved to draw and play soccer. David listed his fun facts: he had one older brother, in college, a pet dog named Wallace, and he babysat the neighbor's dogs. He told her his hobbies, how he could never manage to draw a face, but could concoct a story in mere minutes. He told her that he wanted to try out for track, so he ran four miles every day.  
Sarah whistled. "You sound dedicated. I can not do that."  
David looked at her in shock. "Whoa! What do you mean by that? That's not a lot. You know Richard Thompson? He runs 82 miles a week."  
She shrugged. "It still is a lot."  
Later on, David took her out to dinner. She loved Golden Corral, so they went there. The food was good, and David got another chance to talk to her. She laughed when he had ketchup on his upper lip, and David, as usual, blushed.  
When they got to her house, David led her to the door, but right before he pressed the doorbell, Sarah pushed his hand down gently. "I just wanted you to know, I had a really fun time with you. Thank you so much for asking me." And with that, she hugged him, then broke away, smoothed her dress, and pressed the doorbell.  
Her father answered. He asked if they were burning leaves, hitting the happy juice, and if they left room for Jesus on the dance floor. When the questions were given satisfactory answers, he nodded,thanked David for giving his daughter a good time, said goodnight, and closed the door. David walked back to the car,and told his mother about the dance. She was pleased that he had a nice time, and congratulated him.  
THE NEXT DAY...  
The police had surrounded the school. David walked up to the crowd of cops. They had asked him to join their case.  
"You're a child,and a student here, so no one will suspect you. You also knew the victim, so we will need your input." David remembered reading that note. He decided to help them.  
"What happened?" David asked the nearest officer.  
"A girl. No I.D. A blow to the head killed her. T.O.D. is 11:00at night."  
"During the Homecoming Dance," David gasped. He tried to make sense of it, but the man continued.  
"She's not the first one, you know." David looked up.  
"What do you mean?"  
"We got some people who cross-referenced any other cases like this. Two popped up, in various parts of the country. To be more precise, Montana and Texas. Always the same time, and always the same age." He looked at David intently. "She was a freshman. Very promising." He sighed."I guess this guy is jealous of them for some reason." He looked at David again. "Are you that kid Sarge was talking about? How you're supposed to help us?" David nodded. "OK, go and explore. Put the gloves on, and try not to break anything, please?"  
David did, then asked, "Should I tell Sarah about this? She may be a new victim at the rate he's going." The officer nodded, but told him to make it quick. He dialed Sarah's number, then waited for her to pick up.  
He heard her yawn. "Hello?" she said gloomily.  
"Hey Sarah."  
She sighed. "David, what it is you want? It's-" she paused, "9:00 A.M."  
"i know, I know. But listen, 'cause it's really important." She paused, his signal to continue. "Someone was murdered at the school."  
He felt her rise a little. "What are you talking about?"  
"A freshman girl was killed at the dance last night. I'm at the school, helping the police."  
"Why?"  
"I'm taking a forensics class."  
"Yeah, so am I. Stay there, don't move, I'm coming."  
"What? Why?"  
""Cause I'm bored." She hung up.  
She arrived fifteen minutes later. She wore a plain T-shirt and shorts, and Toms, as well as a grim expression. Sarah wasted no time. "Where's the body?"  
The cop looked at her. "Young lady, I'm gonna have to ask you-"  
"She's with me!" David blurted out. "She's agreed to be my partner, and is a lot better at this stuff than me."  
The man nodded. "Don't screw around in there, all right?"  
They examined the classroom. The desks were organized neatly, nothing on the walls. Just the chalk outline of the girl. Sarah looked at it. "You think it's possible she was killed here?"  
David nodded. "A possibility, yes. It makes sense. The dance is at the cafeteria, and this is all the way across the school. The perfect scene to kill."  
Sarah frowned. "Didn't the cameras see this?"  
David shook his head. "Power outage over here, in the sophomore hallway, and the plaza. It all connects to the cafeteria." He shrugged. "Maybe she followed him voluntarily. Since we have no I.D., anything is possible."  
"Odds are I know her. Let's see her. Will they give us a lift?"  
"They should." And they did. Thirty minutes later, they were at the coroner's. The doctor, Ted Muggins, explained the wound.  
"She was struck upside the head with something long and pointed."  
Sarah frowned. "Is that possible?"  
"People have a bump in their head, where the jaw meets the brain. She was hit on that bump. See here," he pulled out some sketches. "I did a slight surgery around the injury. There is a crevice in her brain. See?" He gave them the drawings.  
David studied it intently. "It starts off clean, but jiggles to the peak. He probably hit her with something, but it got stuck, so he wiggles it out. He had to have been supporting her, otherwise the crevice would look a lot different." David looked at Ted. "Can we see her?"  
Ted shrugged. "Be my guest." he pulls open a drawer, and removes the sheet from her face.  
Sarah gasped. "Oh no, oh no."  
David looked at her. "You know her?"  
"Yes, Melanie Walton. She was my closest friend." She looked at her ex-date. "I know her, and she would never go into a dark hallway with someone." She looked at Ted. "Were there any traces of alcohol in her system?"  
"Nope. Nothing. No marijuana, cocaine, nothing. And their are no signs of sexual assault."  
David frowned. "So, she is either killed at the dance, or forced in here." He sighed. "If Sarah is friends with her, than she's not stupid. She would've notified someone,right?" he looked at Sarah. She nodded.  
"She was taking a martial arts course. Top of the class." She inspected Melanie's wrists and fingers. "There are no defensive wounds. She was taken completely by surprise."  
David perked up."Wait a minute." He looked at Sarah."The chalk outline was right next to a desk, right? Maybe she was studying, her back turned to the door, the power goes out, so she sits there, and dies." Sarah tilted her head thoughtfully. "She would do something like that, right?"  
Sarah nodded. "She always prioritized. We need to go back there."  
At the school,David told Sarah to sit down. "No offense, but you're a girl, and I think a boy killed her." He grabbed a meter stick. "OK," he said, walking outside. "Pretend you're studying." He waited a bit. "He took something, quietly entered the room-see, there are no squeaks in the hinges-, waited for the right moment, and BAM! smacks her right in the brain." He dropped the meter stick. "What doesn't make sense is that her head would've hit the desk, but not slide off."  
Sarah stood up. "He probably laid a towel on the floor, pushed her off the chair, wiped off the blood, and left."  
Sarah shook her head. "No towel was found."  
"Maybe he's a janitor!"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Think about it! He is the only one who has access to the weapon, and a towel, as well as the incinerator!"  
"What was the weapon?"  
"A broom with the bristles cut off."  
Sarah thought about it for a while. "OK. Let's notify the police of our suspects." She looked at him curiously. "But aren't the brooms the janitors use a bit too wide? The way the crevice peaked shows that the weapon was sharp."  
"Or it could've been caused by shock. I'm not saying the janitors are to blame; I'm just listing off potential suspects."  
LATER...  
David was with Sarah at the closest Starbuck's. She was sipping from a cappacino, he from a latte. They had exercised their minds to the point of shut down, so they got a coffee break. David bought her the cappacino, saying that it was logical for "a mentor to buy his student a treat". She scoffed, punched him in the arm, and laughed. She suddenly sat up, gasping.  
"What? What?" David asked with concern.  
"That man. The electrician! He had come here to power the lights to make them brighter. I overheard him saying that he'd need a few days to acquire to materials, and a few days is at Homecoming!  
David looked shocked, then pieced it together in his mind. "He could've asked her for help, shut off the power, but say it was the lights-"  
"Led her into the classroom, and killed her!" Sarah finished.  
"We need to find him."  
"But he is a freelance worker. He changed the camera batteries, so we can't see his face."  
"Did he change the outside ones?" When she was silent, they declared at the same time, "Let's see the cameras!"  
They rewound the video to October 4th. They watched silently for their man. At first, it looked like he wouldn't show up, they picked the wrong day,but then Sarah remembered he came after school. David set the time to 3:30. She was right.  
A white pick-up-David assumed it was a F-150 or a Chevy- with a ladder in it's trunk appeared. They shushed each other, even though this camera wouldn't pick up audio. A man wearing jeans and a white T-shirt climbed out. Sarah paused the video, and David enhanced the image. He zoomed in on the man's face, and they began memorizing all of his distinctive features. He was wearing a baseball cap, but the sides of his head were black. He had a brown beard, his eyes squinted though there was no sunlight, and he was smoking a cigarette. Sarah saw that he was missing an eyebrow, and he had a scar above his left cheek. They printed out the photo, than ran to the police.  
LATER, AT THE DOUGHNUT SHOP...  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sarah exclaimed furiously. The police officers, who appeared to be working tirelessly on the case, were driving glazed doughnuts down their throats.  
The sergeant cleared his throat. "We're on break." He was obviously prepared for this.  
Just then, a teenage girl wearing a visor, red polo and black shorts walked to them, carrying plates of doughnuts. "Here you are, gentlemen. That makes it your, um, sixth plate. Wow, you must be hungry." She set the plates down and walked away.  
Sarge reddened. He obviously wasn't prepared for this. David glowered at him. "Some break." No need to shout; the men knew what he was thinking.  
Just then, David picked up the plates, he and Sarah sat down across from them, and David told them, "While you've been slacking off, we actually got stuff done. Go figure it out; we'd tell you but 'we're on break,'" he finished sarcastically. He and Sarah began eating the doughnuts, savoring them to the last bite. When the men didn't leave, David yelled, "GO!" and they bolted out of the shop.  
Sarah muttered,"Fat idiots," and David nodded silently. They stared at the window, in the direction of the school, trying to figure out where their suspect is hiding.  
The girl appeared, looked around, and asked, "Where did they go?"  
"They had more pressing issues to take care of," Sarah responded. "You can put those back, we don't need them-and neither do they!"  
A FEW MINUTES LATER...  
"See? We didn't take long on our break." Sarah scolded the cops.  
They nodded, apologizing over and over, waiting for her to get on with it. Finally, David broke in. "Have you discovered what we did?" One man said that they thought the girl was killed while studying. David smiled. "No," he said with a touch of sympathy. "She didn't. Sarah and I thought that was a possibility, but we ruled that out. Why?" They began to concentrate hard, realizing they were on the right track. A man blinks and straightens.  
"The cameras!" he yelled. "You guys checked the cameras! Wait!" He paused, thinking hard. "The outside ones! Are we sure he didn't shut off the outside ones?"  
"Based on what it saw,you had to look in the very edge of the recording to see him. We zoomed in on him, and enhanced the image. This is him," Sarah answered, smiling at the correct man. They studied it, and Sarge groaned and hit himself on the forehead.  
"I know him! That's Scotur Geriv! He's an immigrant from somewhere; I don't remember where. He was sent to a correctional facility because he claimed he was hearing voices that told him to do- ah, whatever! He lives at Watterson Street, five miles away. Let's go!"  
AT THE WEIRD MAN'S HOUSE...  
"Police! Come out with your hands behind your head!" David was holding a bat; Sarah a broom. They trailed silently behind the police, double-checking each room. David went into the kitchen, and paused. The bat dropped.  
Inside were drawings of a man from The Office with knives in his chest. The word "Sinister" was painted on the wall in were pictures, VHS tapes, newspaper clippings, and notebook paper strewn all over the counter. He noticed a picture from 1987. David picked it up an almost cried. It was a boy, probably no more than seven or eight, wearing a party hat, smiling with a woman over a cake with lit candles. In the background was a strange looking willow tree, almost like it was dressed up...  
Sarge and Sarah walked in, and lowered their weapons when the saw what David had seen. He turned to face them, and felt a sharp blade against his skin. A voice rasped, "He's here. He's here. He wants you dead... please tell him to stop... tell him to stop...I don't want to anymore...He has no power over me any more..." With that, he retracted the knife away, and slit his own throat. Scotur fell dead, holding a note. David picked it up and read.  
"He knows you now..." leaving he, Sarge, and Sarah to ponder who "he" was...  
THE END?


End file.
